Saving Ohs!Once upon a time it happened as the tales tell you. But this is
reality in the 1900 century. The foundry of Ohs Works was going to be
auctioned and all working farming men, in the foundry and black smiths
were restless moving around talking about what will happen. No doubt
many were strengthened with more than one mouthful from what they
had in the bottle.
The women stood as usual gathered sidewise while the farm hands and
blacksmiths were strolling around.

The auction started and one man looked
like poor, made several bids for the whole works. No one
thought that this man with simple clothes, neglected outward and
without any company, could possibly have any money to pay.

When the auction was over and "the pauper" had to pay his bid, he
brought up money out of his purse made of fine leather, which was
hanging in a strap over his shoulder, and fully paid his bid.

It showed up that this man was no other than the patron at
Lessebo Works, Johan Lorenz Aschan. Everybody had of course the
meaning that he in this way had bought Ohs for too less money.

More about Ohs from the beginning.In order to know Ohs from the beginning. The place is mentioned
in a paper already 1593 at Uppsala meeting. What this document was
about
is not known but the farmer Peder Ericsson had signed it. Ohs was
owned and administered by the state. Probably the activities in Ohs
was farming and extracting iron from the lake ore which was common
in the surrounding lake Rusken. The water flow Ohsawater gave power
for this.

Christian Hempel.
Now after over 50 years a man Christopher Hansson Hempel is made
known. His task was to buy Ohs works and there build up a foundry, a
hammer and also take care of the farming. This happened 1661. He got
permission 1668 to build the foundry. It is said that the pig iron was
transported to Karlshamn for export, but it could as well been
brought to Åker where canons were casted.

This Christopher or even listening to Christian, came from Hörle
works. There he had married miller Turles' daughter and in this way
been the owner of the mill. In the same time the investment company
the Baakiska House in Amsterdam built a foundry in Hörle.

In this place Christian worked, born 1620 in Åker, died 1883 and
was called foundry master. He was in contact with the Baakiska
House, which also owned the works in Taberg since 1652. He was the
man who got the mission to buy Ohs.

Just this very man Christian
is documented as foundry master in Hörle, established 1659, when he
search for "Publicum Attestum" from the local authority
1667. This is the same as working testimonial as he intended to move
for another place. This was Ohs in Gällaryd parish. He got privilege
for this. The cause for moving was the mission from Amsterdam. This
town was the centre for the vast Swedish export of canons. Casting
these there was a need for pig iron. This was get from a foundry and the
best ore was taken from lakes. Any refreshing of the pig iron was
not yet actual.

Iron ore could also have been sold to Åker.
See picture of a
canon. In Åker fortification canons were casted directly from their foundry.
Christian started his life and career in Åker.

A closer
investigation of the ancestry of Hempel show that he was son to Hans
Hempel active in Åker Canon factory works. This Hans had probably
emigrated to Sweden from Germany about 1841, together with Henrik
Hempel. Not curious to go together with a mate doing such a unsure
action. In Swedish war archive he are named as a German washer, this
mean that he talked German. Hans got two sons, Lorens and Christian.
These two were identified as slag washers and for this speaking
Swedish. With this information it is showed that Christian was an immigrant of the second generation from Germany.

Christian Hempel didn't succeed an acceptable economical result in Ohs.
The Baakiska House took over and Christian disappeared in the
Swedish industrial mist over Gällaryd parish. On the other hand
there were many other foundry masters and hammer masters which
continued their work. In order to sort out the right Hempel person
are difficult as there are many who make investigations and there
are different results. Anyway it is known that Christian had work at Huseby works.

The Baakiska House continued to run Ohs works. There
are bad knowledge which persons were running Ohs up to 1750, when Ohs
was sold to family Silversparre. Exact year is not known.

Ancestry SilversparreSome family info. Silversparre has grown out from several
families. One aristocratic from county Upland. and one baron family
from county Smaland.
This two families were all active in Swedish military. Lars Johan Silversparre,
born 1700, dead 1754 in Ohs, came from Orrefors, where he had
started a foundry 1726. He took over Ohs and registered there. No
one will think that he had knowledge about foundries as 26 year old.
He was more an investor. Silversparre owned
Orranäs manor. On these lands an iron work were established as which
he was allowed from the crown. Around this a small community grow
and got the name Orrefors. Here there were a foundry and several
hammers. The reason why he moved to Ohs is not known. As a free
rendering he was infirm because of his death already 1754.

In which extent Lars Johan took over control of Ohs, beyond income,
there is no knowledge, anyway not officially.

His father Erik went with
Charles XII and was killed in Poltava 1709. Lars Johan was active at
Kalmar regiment already 1716 and appointed second lieutenant 1722.

He resigned 1727 and was appointed Forest officer 1730 and Forest
supervisor 1740. He got approval to start a glassworks in Johanstorp
at Lenhovda parish.

He took over Ohs Works in the middle of 1700. Exact year unknown,
but lived at Orranäs manor till 1740. He died later 1754 in Ohs
Works. His second wife stayed at Ohs till her dead 1808.

After all these investments it is not strange that a tall tale was
created about the treasure of Silversparre around in Orranäs
parish. This was so serious that people cut after it on the beaches of Orra lake.

Ohs
was in the beginning of 1750 in a bad shape because of stagnation
and decay. In spite of this it was kept in the ownership of
Silversparre up to 1808 when second wife died. The works was sold on
a executive auction 1819. Several in the family Silversparre were
born at Ohs.

Johan Lorenz Aschan.Now was the time when patron at Lessebo Works, born 1772, dead
1854 (1856?) entering the history of Ohs. He had of course close
knowledge in Ohs, which had been in stagnation for a while since
Silversparre took over. This was the period between 1740 till 1808.
During this time up to 1819 everything must have stand still in Ohs. It
was a good bargain for an active industrial man to take over Ohs for
a small amount of money. Johan Lorenz owned several works, Åry
Works, around Värnamo and of
course had people who could take over and change development. The
first task was to bring the farming running and then to start the
foundry and hammers which still could be used.

This Johan Lorenz
was a remarkable person and also a clever industrial man. He was
educated doctor and had a long service period as a doctor. He worked
during the finnish war and after that as local doctor in the
district of Nora and Linde. He resigned 1812 and was appointed 1814
as Mining adviser. Later 1853 he became a member of Science Academy.

He married to a fortune when taking foundry proprietor Nils
Nilsson's daughter in Grythyttehed Katarina 1801. With this money
he could buy Lessebo Works 1802. He was known for many donations
helping studying people from Linkoping and Vaxjo, in Uppsala or
Lund.

His main interest in Ohs was the foundry. He owned several
works since earlier. These worked with the lake ore which could be
found in abundance mainly for Ohs in lake Rusken. With the help of
his youth friend chemist Berzelius he succeeded to refine this
ore. This pig iron became now as good as the much more expensive
imported English iron.

He developed several sell worthy casted
products for this pig iron, pots and ovens. These product made
Smaland world famous. His iron was mainly delivered to Motala. Pig
iron was used for it's trapping characteristics in frames of
machinery. May be Husqvarna was one of his customers. Still
today, 2000, pig iron pots can be bought with the name Skeppstuna. Johan Lorenz took
also over the cooper mine in Kleva and with the help from Berzelius
succeeded to refine nickel out of cooper ore. This production went
on till 1920.

When Johan Lorenz died he left behind
a fortune of about 3 millions rkd. This made that extensive
investments were possible to be made.

Nils Nilsson Aschan.Already 1830 Johan's son Nils, born 1802, died 1888, took over
the control of Ohs. He was also a good manager as his father. He had
inherited from the patron in Grythyttehed a much harder leadership
and with this he kept the work in Ohs with a steady hand. This was
made in this time dictatorial way. The workers were exceptionally
used maximally. The shift work at this time was 13 hours day and 11
hours night.

A remarkable thing was that a new clock time was
used. The local Ohs clock was always ½ hour before. This got the name
"Ohsa time". No one knows what it was good for. It was not abandoned
until 1940. Sweden had not yet introduced common time.

Another
thing is that family Aschan could be recognized for was that they when
necessary could dress for a special purpose. Nils dressed once as a
farmer in order to unveil black smiths for unauthorized selling in "smea
forest". The black smiths took overflow iron and made farming tools
in order to sell it to the local farmers. This was a must for them
to get a better living.

New roads were built around Ohs to get better transports. Cultivated
fields made free from " smaland stones". This can be recognized
looking for the wall called Bohulta Stone Wall. The future looked
good for Ohs Work.

The pig iron was not any more delivered to
Karlshamn. Instead it was transported to Jönköping and from there to
Motala and through Gota Channel exported world wide.

Nils Nilsson Aschan died 1888
and had no children to take over. Because of new refining processes
for iron the small foundry of Ohs could not keep prices and delivery
amount. The foundry was involved in the iron work death and was
closed 1867. Nils Nilsson Aschan's widow gave Ohs away to a niece.
She married a tailor in Gothenburg named Kling. He changed Ohs
working direction when he wrecked the foundry and instead built and
started diary farming. For this, without acceptance, he had to pay a
fine of 75000 Rkd to the crown.

Sannfrid Berglund.
Now Ohs was in stagnation and nothing happened up to 1893 when Ohs
was sold to Sannfrid Beglund born 1851 died 1916. He was an owner of
a pulp mill in Habo.

There were large areas of forest owned by Ohs works and this was
necessary for pulp mill production.

This sort of factory was quickly built and already 1894 it was in
production. It was comparing to other factories of this kind a small
unit, which later produced as best as 3000 ton of pulp a year.

In
order to transport this production to the nearest railway there were
only horse and wagon to be used. Sweden was in an intensive railway
building period during this time. When the main railway lines
were built and in this case came to connect Bor, Borås and
Gothenburg it was clear that the transport of pulp from Ohs should
be transported to Bor. This was the reason why a railway line was
best to be built between Ohs and Bor. This work started 1907 and
finished 1910.

In connection with the world fair in Paris 1889 a
railway system was built for transporting visitor within the fair
area. It was called Decauville. It had a track gauge of only 600 mm.

From Helsingborg a railway was built connecting Råå and Ramlösa
1890. 1906 this was changed to normal width, 1435 mm. One
locomotive, several wagons and rails were sold to Ohs. These wagons
could take 25 tons each. Very good compared to horse and wagon.

This railway line was used up to 1967 and was taken over 1970 by a
veteran railway club.

Erik
Berglund.Sannfrid Berglund died 1916 and leadership was taken over by his
son Erik, born 1884, died 1950. All work continued in good order and
the small railway line was in a good shape.

Erik Berglund was interested in cars
and specially in motorcycles. Besides his work at the factory, he
sponsored short after WWII the building of a new heavy mc with the
coming name Union.

Stig Berglund.But Erik died 1950 and the lead of Ohs was taken over by his son
Stig Berglund. He was engaged as dir ass. since 1944.
Selling of motorcycles was declining and Stig was advised from his
lawyers to cancel the agreement. This became a catastrophe for this
mc production. The contract was not in Ohs interest and the bad
thing was that the mc alliance had not a long term contract.

New times.The
industrial development in Sweden at this time went through a change
from being a local activity for workers to an economical transaction base
without responsibility for the local area and working people. This
was possible because of new heavy vehicles, better roads and
building of railways. Excisting factories were joined to large units
to give larger profits. In spite of this Ohs continued it's
production up to 1960, when it was sold
to Billerud, with their main office in Säffle and several factories
and sawing mills. Billerud didn't bought it for the factory instead
mainly they wanted the forest. This was of course a strategic buy to
own this forest to have an exchange area against the same in county of
Värmland, where Billerud had it's main activity. Their main purpose
was to run Ohs factory till the exchange of a forest area was
made and then discontinue the factory as the basis was gone. The raw
material.

Billerud got such
an exchange 1967 with the Swedish forest service of an area
in Värmland against one in Ohs. Ohs manor and factory
was not involved in this business. The manor and some areas were later bought buy
family Berglund. It is still owned, 2000, by the family. Here they
work with forestry and farming.

The small sulfite factory was a
petty cost for Billerud to lay down, because they normally worked
with much larger pulp factories. But Stig Berglund negotiated the
continuing of production as long as it gave a profit. He took over
the job as factory leader. With this he
succeeded till 1978. A fire in the factory
made it too expensive to built up again.

Now the time was over for Ohs, except for a short time with a
compensation industry. The Horda rubber group. Left was only the small veteran railroad,
which is an interesting object to visit.

About motorcycle Union.About cycles Union is the most advanced motorcycle
which have been build in Sweden and this happened in the end
of 1940 just after the war. The effort lasted up to 1951.
Union cease as owner when they didn't have assets enough from their
granters of loans and when the leading person Erik Berglund
from Ohs died and no one
more could give guarantee for working money. The bank
account was cancelled. May be it was short thinking to stop
economical basis, when
production was just to be started, and a positive result was supposed.

In Sweden Husqvarna had developed an engine from the
original English Sturmy Archer. It became the Husqvarna 112
TV. It was supposed to be used by the Swedish army and the
engine
model was called M/42 and produced by Albin and
frame by Monark. Birger
Berggren who was very much involved in this and also knew
all the best engineers like Mannerstedt, started the Union
project for a heavy MC i Sweden, and the origin model was M/42.

The Albin engine was chosen and was updated by
Mannerstedt and Gunnar Hagström. Mannerstedt was not fully
connected in the project. Birger found a financier through
his family contacts. It was Erik Berglund who was the owner
of OHS old iron works and HABO sulfite factory 1894 -1978, large areas of
forest, also their own power station several manors and OHS
railway 1907 - 1967. The railway is a veteran one and is still working.
This consortium had money enough to invest in interesting
projects.

For working buildings the locals of Tiederman, near the border to
Norway, was taken over.

This was because several aluminum parts were planned to be casted
in Norway.

The plans was to produce a
series of 300 units. All of them were sold in advance rather
quickly and and time was in a bright scene for the company.
Some minor misfortunes, which didn't reflect very much, was
that Norway chose NATO for defense. The military machine
was not current and also Sweden couldn't decide for a new M42.

What was much worse that the financer Erik Berglund died
1950 and his successor, his son Stig, as board leader, took the advice from
his jurists not to put more money in Union.

This was the situation when the production was aimed to start and all
the 300 ordered machines had to be produced. A bankruptcy became
necessary, 1951, in spite the debt of the company was only
225000 Skr. A small sum today but rather large at the time.
The quantity of cycles became only 42 and of them 4 sport cycles.

If Union have had a longer contract with OHS concern about
money the company may have got a better start with the 300
ordered machines and may survived for say 10 years. But
the future in the 60th and 70th for motorcycles was not too
good for large motorcycles. Better times didn't come until 1980-90.

Birger Berggren who was the dedicated person for this
project took this forced shut down very hard. His interest for motor and
specially motorcycles continued. In this activity he was
often seen in veteran rally competitions. He died later on
the start grid in a veteran race in Hedemora.

About Ohsa railway.Ohs sulfit factory trusted on their transport wagon hauled by
oxen, from 1894 till 1910. Fully 16 years. It is impressing that
they succeeded to transport so much pulp. First time most of it was
transported to Lammhult to access Swedish main south line. One must
remember that the factory also needed timber for the production. The
farmer around had much to do with this.

The railroad between Bor,
Borås and Gothenburg opened 1902. Now it became better to transport
the production to Bor, as it was a connection station for the
railway. The factory raised it's production and it was important
with better transports.

In Helsingborg there was a man Fredrik Posse, who was
deeply involved in transports between Helsingborg - Råå - Ramlösa. 1889
showed on the world fair in Paris a local railway line for the fair
visitors. Paul Decauville had constructed a system with rails, which
was easy to build. It had a track gauge of 600 mm. This was build
with locos from the Swiss constructor
Anatole Mallet. This system allowed small radii for curves
down to 100 m. These locos were known as Mallet locos. They were bought
when the fair closed.

This line called HRRJ closed 1906 to be rebuild to normal track
gauge. This was good for Ohs and one loco, wagons and rails were
bought including turning tables. This loco got the name the French
loco.

This railway from Ohs to Bor took 3 years to build. One horse
railway was included from the steam saw from Tagel.

It was hard to build this
railway as it was a high area between Ohs and Bor. There were also
several level differences on the way.

Two stations must be build
with a side rail so the transport could pull half of the number of
wagons. The largest level differences was 41 m for 1000 m. The
length of the railway to Bor became 14,769 km. Service and stores
was arranged within the factory area.

It was time to renovate the French loco 1913 and to replace it
one loco was hired from Orenstein & Koppel in Germany. This loco
was of the same type a no 5 in Smedjebacken. It had only 2 pair of
wheels. During WWI there was a demand of another used loco which was
bought 1918 from Vinninga close to Linköping. It had a track
gauge of 891 and had to be rebuilt later to 600. It was called the
Swedish loco. One Heeresfeldbahn loco of the type brigad was bought
1918. This type was used during the war for transports closed to the
war front. This got the name the German loco. The Swedish loco
was put away. The boiler was forced to be renovated for the German
loco 1929 and as replacement another Brigad loco was bought from
Bratteborg. 1948 an engine loco was bought and the German loco
became reserve after some time, but later rebuilt 1952 to be
used as a switch engine. One petrol engine was built in.

Today Ohsa railway has arranged that they have two Brigad locos.
The second was bought from Emsfors and have the name Emsfors the
first Brigad loco was one imported from Germany 1976 and called the
new German loco.

More about Ohs.There are more to be seen and written in Ohs. In the stone
magazine there is a collected fair showing tools from different
times and also an archive. The old farming clock is stored here.
Don't forget to look at Bohulta stonewall. You can also study the
old manor and the power station.